An assembly and a method for the precision drilling of seed grains use a drilling machine with at least one row unit which is assigned a drive set up for instigating delivery of a seed grain into a furrow, and a control system which is connected to a position-determining system, to a memory device for storing delivery positions of seed grains, to the drive of the row unit and to a seed material sensor for detecting the actual delivery position of the seed grains in the furrow. The control system controls the drive based on signals from the position-determining system, the memory device and the seed material sensor so that the seed grains are delivered successively at the delivery positions.
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10. A method for the precision drilling of seed grains, wherein:
a drilling machine with at least one row unit is assigned a drive set up for instigating delivery of a seed grain into a furrow, and a control system is connected to a position-determining system, to a memory unit for storing delivery positions of seed grains, to the drive of the row unit and to a seed material sensor for detecting an actual delivery position of the seed grains and controls the drive based on signals from the position-determining system, the memory unit and the seed material sensor so that the seed grains are deposited successively at the delivery positions, wherein the seed material sensor detects the final position of the seed grain in the furrow; and wherein the control system is operated to evaluate on the basis of the signals from the seed material sensor a time stagger (Δt) between activation of the drive and the moment the seed grain reaches its final position in the furrow and to take this into consideration together with a current machine forward drive speed (v) when controlling the drive.
1. Assembly for the precision drilling of seed grains, comprising:
a drilling machine with at least one row unit which is assigned a drive set up for instigating delivery of a seed grain into a furrow, and a control system, which is connected to a position-determining system, to a memory unit for storing delivery positions of seed grains, to the drive of the row unit and to a seed material sensor for detecting an actual delivery position of the seed grains and which can be operated to control the drive based on signals from the position-determining system, the memory unit and the seed material sensor so that the seed grains are deposited successively at the delivery positions, wherein the seed material sensor is adapted to detect the final position of the seed grain in the furrow; and wherein the control system can be operated to evaluate on the basis of the signals from the seed material sensor a time stagger (Δt) between activation of the drive and the moment the seed grain reaches its final position in the furrow and to take this into consideration together with a current machine forward drive speed (v) when controlling the drive.
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The invention relates to an assembly for the precision drilling of seed grains.
In farming, plants, such as maize or beets, which are grown with relatively large spaces between one another, are normally drilled by individual seed drilling machines. A tractor thereby moves several row units, which are attached side by side next to one another along a tool bar, over a field and the row units are controlled in such a way that the seed material is discharged at intervals which are as regular as possible. Since the row units cannot cover the entire field in a single crossing, the tractor must turn at the end of the field after drilling a first strip and must then travel over the field in the opposite direction and discharge the seed material on a second strip of the field.
EP 1 415 523 A1, regarded as being of the generic type, proposes in contrast equipping the individual row units of a drilling machine with an associated drive and controlling these drives centrally by using an external position-determining system in order to obtain a predetermined drilling pattern. The discharge point of the individual seed grains is detected by means of a seed material sensor in order to identify the angular position of a drilling disc of the row unit. Based on these measures, a two-dimensional drilling pattern can indeed be produced, but detecting the actual position of the seed grain is not always sufficiently accurate, since the time between the discharge of the seed grain through the drilling disc and the moment the seed grain reaches its final position in the ground can be different, for example in the case of seed grains of different sizes, and the spatial stagger between the discharge of the seed grain through the drilling disc and its reaching its final position in the ground depends on the travelling speed of the tractor, which is not necessarily constant. Thus with the assembly according to EP 1 415 523 A1, undesired offsets between adjacent plant rows are still possible.
This problem also arises for the assembly according to DE 10 2005 010 686 A1 in which the drives of the cell wheels of the row units are controlled using a position-determining system in order to align the delivery points of adjoining rows with one another, and the drives are synchronized with one another through incremental encoders.
It is furthermore proposed to detect the position of seed grains in the furrow using a seed material sensor and to control the drives of the drilling units so that desired relative spacings of the plants in the travel direction are obtained (EP 2 227 932 A1), or to detect the seed material optically as it falls through the seed material tubes and using a position-determining system and the measured forward speed of the drilling machine to determine the delivery position and to register it in a chart (U.S. Pat. No. 6,941,225).
The invention is concerned with the problem of improving a drilling machine which has at least one row unit to the extent that a desired drilling pattern can be obtained with higher precision compared with the prior art.
An assembly for the precision drilling of seed grains comprises a drilling machine with at least one row unit which is assigned a drive set up for instigating delivery of a seed grain into a furrow, and a control system, which is connected to a position-determining system, to a memory device for storing delivery positions of seed grains, to the drive of the row unit and to a seed material sensor for detecting the actual delivery position of the seed grains in the furrow. The control system controls the drive based on signals from the position-determining system, the memory device and the seed material sensor so that the seed grains are deposited successively at the delivery positions.
The control system therefore does not, as in the prior art according to EP 1 415 523 A1 and DE 10 2005 010 686 A1, depend on the time and spatial stagger between the delivery of the seed grain through the drilling disc or the cell wheels and its final position in the furrow being constant, but instead detects the actual position of the seed material in the furrow. Sources of error which hitherto were not taken into consideration, such as the forward drive speed of the drilling machine, different drop speeds of the seed material in the seed tubes determined by the sizes of the seed grains, and a possible slope of the ground in the forward direction are thereby now taken into account, thus making it possible to maintain the desired delivery position with higher precision compared to the prior art.
As a rule, the drilling machine comprises a plurality of row units arranged side by side next to one another in a row and are assigned one common drive or a separate drive for each unit. The drive or drives are controlled by a common control system (or one assigned to the row unit). The row units can be attached in one row or offset relative to one another in the forward direction. A seed material sensor can be assigned to each row unit or only one part of the row units or only a single row unit can be equipped with a seed material sensor.
In particular, a camera is used as seed material sensor, although laser scanners or one-dimensional line sensors can also be used for detecting the seed grain or a light beam or a thermosensor could be used for detecting heated-up seed material.
In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the control system is connected to means for detecting the slope of the ground in the forward direction and can be operated to anticipate and take into account the influence of the sloping ground in the forward direction on the position of the seed grains. If the seed material consequently rolls down when driving over slopes, the control system learns of this factor from signals from the seed material sensor and the means for detecting the slope of the ground and during subsequent downhill driving it automatically shifts the seed delivery in time, in order not to first learn from the seed material sensor that one or more seed grains were deposited at the wrong location in the furrow. The means for detecting the slope of the ground can be a ground slope sensor. It would however also be conceivable to use experience (for the sensed position of the seed material and/or a ground slope derived therefrom or from detected three-dimensional position data) from the preceding driving track in order to form an initial value for the first seed grains of the new row.
It is also possible to use the control system to evaluate a time stagger Δt between the activation of the drive and the moment the seed grain reaches its final position in the furrow on the basis of the signals from the seed material sensor and to take into consideration this time stagger Δt together with the current forward drive speed v when controlling the drive. The time stagger Δt can be determined from the position of the seed grain in the furrow detected by the seed material sensor (taking into account the current forward drive speed v and the geometry of the seed material sensor and the row unit) and/or from the moments in time of the activation of the drive and the confirmation of the seed grain in the furrow.
It is also possible that the control system stores in the memory device the delivery positions of the seed grains in the furrow detected by the seed material sensor and the position-determining system during a first crossing of the field. The control system thus has information available as to the positions in which the seed grains have actually been deposited. This information is then used in a following crossing, i.e. during a subsequent field crossing adjoining the area of the field which has already been drilled, to control the drive in order ensure that the seed grains are deposited at the desired position relative to the positions deposited during the first crossing in this second run.
This can take place in detail using the time stagger Δt described above and forward drive speed or a spatial stagger Δx is evaluated between the position at which the drilling machine is located during activation of the drive, and the actual position at which the seed grain is deposited in the furrow. This stagger can be created during the first field crossing and then during the following crossing the drive is activated further forward or back by the stagger Δx, whereby it is expedient to keep the forward drive speed constant. As an alternative to this, the stagger Δx is first determined continuously during the following crossing from the signals from the seed material sensor and is taken into consideration when controlling the drive.
An embodiment of the invention described below in further detail is illustrated in the drawings. In the drawings:
The drive 34 is connected by a shaft 52 and a worm gearing 54 to the seed meter 32 which draws successive seed grains 36 out of a container 56 and deposits them through the seed tube 40 into the furrow 38. The seed meter 32 can be of any structure, for example having a cell wheel or a drilling disc with brushes or recesses for receiving seed grains 36. A seed material sensor 58 in the form of a camera monitors the seed grains 36 in the furrow 38. It would also be conceivable to provide only one common drive (not shown) for all the seed meters 32, which then drives these via a transverse shaft which is mounted on the tool bar 26 as shown in EP 2 322 026 A1 hereby incorporated herein by reference.
As shown in
The control system 60 works during operation according to the flow chart of
The chart thereby represents a desired drilling pattern, such as by way of example the quadratic pattern shown in
When determining the time point in step 102 it is furthermore determined at which (two- or three-dimensionally detected) position y the row unit 14 is actually located. For this, the signals from the position-determining system 64 and the known stagger between the position-determining system 64 and the row unit 14 in the forward direction are taken into account. Furthermore, the forward drive speed v of the tractor 10, which can be measured by the position-determining system 64 and/or by suitable sensors for detecting the speed of the wheels 20 and/or 22 or a radar sensor (not shown) for detecting the forward drive speed relative to the ground, and a time stagger Δt between the activation of the drive 34 and the moment the seed grain 36 reaches its final position in the furrow 38 is taken into consideration. In detail, the time point t can be calculated according to the formula
t=abs(x−y)/v−Δt
in which t is the amount of time until activation of the drive 34 and abs(x−y) is the absolute amount of the differences between the absolute positions x and y, i.e. the distance between the ideal and actual position in the forward direction.
As soon as the time point for activating the drive 34 is reached, the drive 34 is activated by the control system 60 and a single seed grain 36 is dispensed into the seed tube 40 and into the furrow 38.
In step 104, the seed grain 36 is identified by the seed material sensor 58 in the furrow 38, for which the output signals from the camera are analysed by means of an image processing system.
In step 106, the position of the seed grain 36 is determined, for which the signals from the position-determining system 64 and the seed material sensor 58 as well as the known stagger between the position-determining system 64 and the seed material sensor 58 are used. A comparison then takes place between the actual position of the seed grain 36 and the ideal position defined in step 102. If a deviation (lying above a predetermined threshold value) is ascertained, by way of example because the seed grain 36 was faster or slower than envisaged in step 102, Δt is corrected accordingly. In a first approximation, the distance Δx between the ideal and actual position of the seed grain 36 in the furrow 38 can be divided by the speed v, in order to add the thus obtained correction value to Δt or subtract it therefrom, depending on whether the seed grain 36 was sensed as being too far behind or too far forward. Alternatively or additionally, Δt can also be measured directly by detecting the time points of the discharge of the seed grain 36 (or the activation of the drive 34) and the confirmation of the seed grain 36 in the furrow 38 by the seed material sensor 58.
It should be noted here that with the first call-up of step 102, a stored empirical value can be used for Δt so long as the measured values of steps 104 and 106 are not yet present.
In optional step 108, the incline of the tractor 10 (or of the row units 14) relative to the forward direction can be detected. For this, a slope sensor 66 can be used, or this slope is calculated from two three-dimensional positions detected in succession of the position-determining system 64. If the slope has changed since the last run-through of step 108, Δt is adapted so that the triggering of the drive 34 can take place earlier (if previously travelling uphill and now downhill) or later (if previously travelling downhill and now uphill) and thus the changed rolling behaviour of the seed grain 36 based on a different incline in the forward direction is taken into account.
Step 108 (or step 106) is then followed again by step 102.
Whereas in the preceding text the control of only a single drive 34 was described, the control system 60 controls the drives 34 of all row units 14 according to the diagram of
It is furthermore noted that in the description of
Step 204 follows, in which it is queried whether the first crossing of the field has been completed, which can be detected from the signals from the position-determining system 64. If this is not the case then step 202 follows again, otherwise step 206 follows.
In step 206 a following crossing now takes place in which the seed material is to be lined up as accurately as possible with the seed material discharged during the first crossing (step 202) in order to achieve the desired drilling pattern (see the examples in
This stagger Δx could as an alternative to this also be already determined in step 202 and then in step 206 the drive is activated further forward or back in the forward direction by a stretch corresponding to the stagger Δx in order to even out this stagger. The stagger Δx can thereby be selected evenly for the entire field or can depend on the relevant position along the driving track. This procedure is particularly suitable when the forward drive speed of the tractor is sufficiently constant.
Step 206 is followed by step 208, in which it is queried whether the drilling process has been completed over the field, for which reference can likewise be made to the signals from the position-determining system 64. If the process has not yet been completed, then step 206 follows again, otherwise the end is in step 210.
After drilling the seed grains 36 over the entire field, an accurate chart is available in the memory unit 62 showing the places at which the seed grains 36 have been deposited on the field. This chart can be used to set up a route plan for future field work which is composed of crossings of the field running in the drilling direction or in a direction including an angle with the drilling direction (see
Kormann, Georg, Wolff, Kilian, Vollmar, Uwe
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Mar 18 2013 | KORMANN, GEORG, DR | Deere & Company | ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST SEE DOCUMENT FOR DETAILS | 030162 | /0659 | |
Mar 18 2013 | WOLFF, KILIAN | Deere & Company | ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST SEE DOCUMENT FOR DETAILS | 030162 | /0659 | |
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